Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-09-30
The Largest Opium-Den in
China

China.
A writer in a recent number of the
North China Herald describes the
Nan-gin-tsin. the greatest opium den
in China. 1t is known throughout
the length and breadth of the empire
to the Chinese, and it helps to make
Shanghai regarded as city affording
the same opportunities for pleasure
and dissipation that Paris does the
typical Frenchman. 1t is situated in
the French concession in Shanghai,
within a stones throw of the wall of
the native city. within which no
opium shops are supposed to exist.
The character of the place could not
be guessed from its external appear
ance, although the air of the people
passing in and out might suggest it.
The throngs visiting it represent all
stations of life, from the coolie to the
wealthy merchant or the small man.
DARN. 1t is with difficulty that one
gets inside through the crowds of peo-
pie hanging around the door. Those
who have not the requisite number of
copper cash to procure the baneful
pipe watch with horrible wistfulness
each of the more affiuent pass in with
a nervous, hurried step, or totter
out wearing that peculiar dazed
expression which comes after
the smokers craving has been
satisfied and his transient pleas
ure has passed away. One requires a
strong stomach to stand the sicken-
ing fumes with which the air inside is
thickened. The clouds of smoke, the
dim light from the numerous colored
lamps, the numbers of recoiling forms
with the distorted faces bent over the
small flames at which the pipes are
lighted, caused the novice sicken-
ing sensation. But as soon as the
eye becomes accustomed to the scene
it is noticed that the place is got up
on an expensive scale. In the centre
of the lower room hangs one of the
finest Chinese lamps, the ceiling is of
richly-carved wood, while the painted
walls are thickly inlaid with peculi-
arily marked marble, which gives the
idea of unfinished landscape sketches.
Numerous doors on all sides lead to
the smokers apartments. In the
outer portion of the building stands
counter covered with little boxes of
the drug ready for smoking, which a
dozen assistants are kept busy hand
ing out to the servants who wait upon |
the habitues of the place. The aver
age daily receipts are said to be about |
$1,000. The smoking apartments are
divided into four classes. In the |
cheapest are coolies. who pay about |
4d for theil smoke. In the dearest |
the smoke costs about I'd. The drug
is much the same both in quality and
quantity, it is the difference in the
pipes that regulates the price. The
best kinds are made of ivory, the stem
being often inlaid with stones, and
rendered more costly by reason of
elaborate carving; the cheapest kinds
are made simply of hardwood. The
rooms, also, are furnished according
to class. In the most expensive, the
lounge upon which the smoker re-
clines is of fine velvet, with pillows of
the same material the frames IF each
couch are inlaid with mother-of-
pearl and jade, and the whole air Of
these rooms is one of sensuous luxury.
There is also a number of private
rooms. In the poorer section may be
seen many wearers of the tatteredy yell
low and gray robes of Buddhist and
Taoist priests. Women form a fair
proportion of the smokers. The COM
mon belief is that the opium sleep is
attended by mild, pleasurable delir-
ium, with brief glances Of Elysium;
but this is the exception, not the rule.
People smoke to satisfy the craving
begotten of previous indulgence.
There is accommodation for $50 smokers
at time, and there is seldom va
cancy very long. The stream of
smokers goes on from early morning
until midnight, when the place closes;
the clouds Of smoke go up necessarily
all day long. Europeans do not often
visit the place, but the seamen Of
American men-of-war visiting Shang-
hal, sometimes seeks solace in the
drug.